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Tag: Rule of Law

The growing presence of Mexican drug cartels in Colombia and their alliances with local gangs are a threat to the Andean country’s national security, the attorney general said on Thursday.

Colombian authorities have long grappled with the presence of foreign criminal groups like Mexico’s Sinaloa cartel, which buy Colombian cocaine from local gangs and ship it north to the United States and Europe.

“It has been clearly identified by the attorney general’s office, and we’ve informed the national government, of a growing presence of Mexican cartels,” attorney general Nestor Humberto Martinez told journalists. “We have to banish them because they are a threat to national security.”

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An alleged top boss of the Gulf drug cartel was captured by Mexican marines Monday in the northern border state of Tamaulipas, which for years has been terrorized by gangland violence. A statement from the Mexican navy said the suspect it identified only as Jose Alfredo, with no last name, was arrested in the city of Matamoros, which is across from Brownsville, Texas.

“Presumably he was the leader of a criminal organization in the region,” the statement said.

A state government official with knowledge of the case confirmed that the detained man was Jose Alfredo Cardenas, alias “the Accountant” and “Mr. Polite.”